Regional partnerships win backing of Utilities board
In a major policy shift, the Colorado Springs Utilities board voted Wednesday to allow the municipally owned department to enter into regional partnerships with other water entities in El Paso County.
Mayor Lionel Rivera and Utilities CEO Jerry Forte hailed the decision as a historic vote, saying it would benefit not only the utility’s ratepayers, but other water consumers throughout the county.
“It’s a win-win for everybody,” Forte said.
“It will bring the costs down for everyone,” Rivera added.
Under the new policy, which still has many details to be worked out, the regional partners would be charged a premium for water service that would be higher than what the utility’s current customers pay.
A portion of that would go to the city’s general fund and another portion to Utilities.
The Utilities board, which consists of members of the City Council, voted 6-2 to move ahead with the regional partnerships. Councilmen Randy Purvis and Tom Gallagher cast dissenting votes.
“I’m opposed to using our water,” Gallagher said, questioning whether Utilities would have an adequate water supply to meet demand during times of drought.
Gallagher said he was also concerned about whether the utility would be able to accurately assess the hidden costs associated with delivering the water — such as electricity used to drive pumps — to the regional partners.
But Rivera insisted that the regional partnerships will be a good deal for the city and the utility.
“If we have excess capacity that we’re not using, then we’re not being good stewards of our resources,” he said. “It will be a huge benefit to be able to sell water that we don’t need.”
Forte acknowledged that the partnerships could help defray the cost of the $2.3 billion Southern Delivery System, a 62-mile pipeline that will bring water to the city from Pueblo Reservoir.
In some cases, Forte said the partners may simply want to use Utilities’ pipelines to transport their raw water. In other cases, they may want it to treat the water as well, he added.
Gary Bostrom, general manager of Utilities’ water-services division, said the agreements will be approved by the council on a case-by-case basis. He said he didn’t yet know how much money the premiums would yield for the city or Utilities.
Walter Lawson, a retired landscape architect, warned that there were many unresolved issues.
“It’s an unfinished piece of work,” he said. “We don’t really know what the costs will be to ratepayers.”
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